Omumborombonga. I recall that I stood barefoot and wide-eyed at one of the cattle posts on the farm when I first heard the enchanting Herero word. I was listening with childlike wonder to my beloved Onkel Lothar speaking in the language of the farmworkers at the borehole that was fondly named Omumborombonga.
I was about seven years old at the time: years measured in seconds by the audible ticks of the old-fashioned clock in the farmhouse - punctuated by an hourly chime: a ghostly gong, gong.
On the farm Kanambo, close to Otjiwarongo in central Namibia, Lothar Wilhelm farmed with cattle. He shared the Herero people’s love of these animals. It is common knowledge in Namibia that the Herero once were nomadic pastoralists with large herds of cattle - and that they are drawn to farming to this day.
The Herero are one of roughly nine cultural groups in Namibia: the